China expels legislator for violating discipline

BEIJING—A Chinese legislator has been expelled for "serious disciplinary violations" amid a crackdown on corruption ordered by President Xi Jinping, state media reported Sunday.

The National People's Congress said it took the action against Zhou Wenbin on Saturday following an investigation, the Xinhua News Agency said. No details were given, although the charge of violating discipline is usually shorthand for bribery, embezzlement, the selling of offices or other forms of corruption.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Sunday that Zhou, 52, had been dismissed from his post as president of Nanchang University in the southern province of Guangxi on June 18.

Xi has announced a series of measures to cut down on government waste and corruption since taking over as head of the Communist Party in November.

While the party usually tightly controls information about specific cases, especially those involving high-level officials, state media have been unusually open about the case of a former district official in the city of Chongqing who was sentenced to 13 years in prison on Friday for taking more than 3.1 million yuan ($500,000) in bribes.

Lei Zhengfu, former party chief of a district in the south-central metropolis of Chongqing, had been at the center of a sex tape scandal since video clips went viral of the portly 55-year-old having sex with a 25-year-old woman hired by property developers, allegedly in an elaborate extortion scheme.